Where a Hot Dog’s Not Just a Hot Dog: Detroit-Style Coneys Come to Shreveport

Featured photo: A Detroit-style Coney from Top Dawg Hot Dawg. These hot dogs are decidedly more delicious than they are photogenic.

Anthony Fodale’s Top Dawg Hot Dawg is a new hot dog cart serving Detroit-style Coneys around Shreveport. For those who may be asking “There’s a Detroit style of hot dog?” – the answer isa resounding “yes.”In fact, many food writers and historians believe thatthe Coney Island hot dogoriginated in Detroit – there’s even a book on this topic,Coney Detroit. Exchange a few words with Fodale and it becomes apparent from his thick accent that he’s a Michigan native. He sources his all-beef, natural casing sausages from Michigan and cooks the chili based on an old family recipe from – you guessed it – Detroit. The bun is a sourdough Italian roll that is steamed for a moment before the dog is prepped.

“I’ve been down here five years now, and I couldn’t find a hot dog that I liked,” Fodale told me. “Everybody thinks that a hot dog’s just a hot dog, but it’s not.”

So what makes a Detroit-style Coney great? The sausage is uncommonly good, but Fodale’s homemade chili knocked my socks off.

“The chili is more of a sauce, almost,” Fodale said. “There’s no beans, and it’s not a meaty chili. It just takes about an hour to cook, but then I let each batch sit for a day or two, so all of those flavors can mingle.”

Fodale’s goal is to open a brick-and-mortar location in the near future.

“We’re just looking for the perfect spot,” he said. “Our goal is to bring the atmosphere of a Coney island from Detroit to Louisiana.”

Top Dawg Hot Dawg can be reached at 318-218-3095 or topdawghotdawg@gmail.com.